2024-08-01 17:58:44
US journalist Evan Gershkovich and ex-Marine Paul Whelan were released by Moscow on Thursday as the United States and Russia completed their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history. US President Joe Biden credited the country’s allies for the multinational deal that set some two dozen people free.
Biden called the prisoner swap “a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world.”
“For anyone who questions whether allies matter, they do,” Biden said. “They matter.”
The US President shared an image with the families of Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmashev and Vladimir Kara-Murza standing inside the Oval Office. All four have been released by Russia as part of the prisoner swap deal.
“Today, I stood beside the families of Paul, Evan, Alsu, and Vladimir in the Oval Office as they spoke to their loved ones for the first time since they regained freedom. These families never lost hope. And today, they’ll each be reunited with the missing piece of their soul,” Biden tweeted.
Evan Gershkovich is a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter who was arrested by Russia last March on espionage charges. Former US Marine Paul Whelan was arrested in Moscow in 2018 on espionage charges. Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was accused of spreading false information about the Russian military.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, an outspoken critic of Russia’s war in Ukraine, was sentenced to 25 years in 2023. He holds dual citizenship of Britain and Russia.
US national security advisor Jake Sullivan said that no money was exchanged as part of the biggest East-West prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War. He added that no sanctions were loosened to facilitate the deal.
The landmark prisoner swap agreed by Russia, the United States and several of its allies that freed 16 people was more than two years in the making, involving secret talks and complex diplomacy involving Germany, Russia and the US, a Reuters report mentioned.
